Ovidio: Metamorfosi, Volume VI (Libri XIII-XV) is the sixth and final installment of a the multi-authored commentary on the Metamorphoses edited by Alessandro Barchiesi and published by the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla. The project produced its first volume in 2005, with subsequent volumes being published every two years or so. All of the individuals involved in this project (the aforementioned Barchiesi, Gianpiero Rosati, E.J. Kenney, J.D. Reed, and Philip Hardie) are world-renowned scholars of Ovidian and Latin literature, and their work on the project has resulted in the creation of a collection of top-flight volumes that demonstrate the immense knowledge and experience of their authors.1

This particular volume is a text, translation, and commentary of Metamorphoses XIII-XV, a portion of Ovid's magnum opus that has received surprisingly little scholarly attention in comparison with the first ten books of the epic. The text and commentary have been prepared by Philip Hardie and are accompanied by an excellent Italian translation by Gioachino Chiarini. This review will examine these three portions of the volume in turn, beginning with the Latin text itself.

Hardie's text is based on Tarrant's 2004 OCT, but makes a number of changes (54 in total across the three Ovidian books) ranging from the minute to the major, all of which are listed on pp. lix-lxi. The text itself is quite clean with an attractive and legible font. At the bottom of each page of text is the complete apparatus of Tarrant (the sigla of the extensive Ovidian manuscript tradition are given on pp. 3-5), and facing each page of text are the corresponding lines of Chiarini's Italian translation. In all these respects, Hardie's volume resembles a standard critical text; however, one minor oddity stands out that is not indicative of Hardie as much as is typical of the Lorenzo Valla editions. As a means to alert readers to important commentary while they are reading the text, the series has included the symbol < in the right margin of the translation on each line about which "note indispensabili alla comprensione del testo" have been made (212). Although the symbol is a useful tool, the presence of multiple such symbols in a page's margin is, at times, distracting.

Hardie's text is accompanied by a wonderful Italian translation by Chiarini, who also penned the translations for Volumes III-IV. As with his work in the other volumes, Chiarini's translation here is as expressive as the Ovidian original, while maintaining the basic thematic progression and—generally—following the line numbers of the Latin. Chiarini's rendering of the famous sphragis of the Metamorphoses is emblematic of his style:

However, as strong as the text and translation are, Hardie's lengthy commentary (415 pgs) is by far the star of this volume. It fills a gaping hole in the scholarship on the final books of the Metamorphoses, providing a full and cohesive commentary on Ovid's ultimate triad missing from W.S. Anderson's commentaries on Books I-V and VI-X.2 Moreover, unlike previous single-book commentaries on Books XIII-XV, whose focus is more on grammatical and cultural issues, Hardie's discussion centers on the aesthetic and intertextual.

A prime example of Hardie's technique comes from his notes on the beginning of Ovid's 'Aeneid' (XIII.623-XIV.608). The lines under review are as follows:

As can be seen from this excerpt, the overwhelming emphasis of Hardie's commentary is on the intertextual relationship between the dueling Aeneids of Vergil and Ovid. To make his case, Hardie explores similarities in aesthetics: thematic repetition, specific vocabulary, and metrical similarity. He omits the more basic questions of grammar and syntax found in other commentaries, a move that makes Hardie's discussion of limited use to non-specialists. On the other hand, the plethora of intertexts explored by the commentary presents graduate students and professional classicists with a veritable goldmine of information with which to conduct research.

Overall, the text, translation, and commentary of this most recent and final installment of the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla's project on Ovid's Metamorphoses constitutes a fitting conclusion to a valuable resource for Ovidian scholars. Hardie's clear text and Chiarini's lucid and expressive translation provide a strong foundation for the volume. However, it is Hardie's extraordinary commentary with its focus on Ovidian aesthetics and intertexts that makes this volume a must-have in the collection of anyone serious about Ovidian studies. One can only hope that the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla will build on this major success and will turn to other classical works that are currently lacking major commentaries.

Notes:

1. BMCR has reviews for each of the individual volumes in the project except Volume 5 available online. Volume I (Books 1-2) was edited by Barchiesi (BMCR 2006.07.38). Volume II (Books 3-4) was edited by both Barchiesi and Rosati (BMCR 2007.10.55). Volume III (Books 5-6) was edited by Rosati (BMCR 2010.07.33). Volume IV (Books 7-9) was edited by Kenney (BMCR 2012.03.59). Volume V (Books 10-12) was edited by Reed. 2. Other single book commentaries exist on these books. Cf. the 'green and yellows' of Hopkinson (2001) and Myers (2009) on Books XIII and XIV, respectively; Hill (2000) (BMCR 2002.02.07) provides a commentary on XIII-XV aimed at undergraduate students.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About BMCR

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR) publishes timely reviews of current scholarly work in the field of classical studies (including archaeology). The authoritative archive can be found at http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu.

This site was established to allow responses to reviews through the comments feature; all reviews from August 2008 have been posted.